Today's New Release Is a Fox Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle!
28mm = 1:48 scale. Crew figures shown are not supplied, but available in pack BAOR19.
The FV721 Fox Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Wheeled) (CVR(W)) was a 4 × 4 armored car manufactured by ROF Leeds, deployed by the British Army as a replacement for the Ferret scout car and the Saladin armored car. The Fox was introduced into service with B Squadron, 1st Royal Tank Regiment (Aliwal Barracks, Tidworth) in 1975, and withdrawn from service 1993-94.
It had a crew of three, and had a low-profile, rotating turret armed with a 30mm L21 Rarden cannon, which was manually fed with three-round clips; 99 rounds were carried. A coaxial L37A2 7.62mm machinegun was mounted with 2,600 rounds. The weapons were not stabilized. This turret was also equipped with a set of two four-barrelled smoke dischargers. The vehicle had a combat weight of 6.75 tonnes and was designed to be air-portable. The Fox had aluminum armor, and was fitted with a flotation screen. It lacked protection against nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Powered by a Jaguar 4.2-litre, 6-cylinder petrol engine, the Fox was one of the fastest vehicles of its type.
The all-welded aluminum armor hull and turret protected against small-arms fire and artillery splinters, but not from heavy (.50 caliber) machinegun fire. The driver sat at the front and had an integral periscope/hatch cover that lifted and opened to the right. The center-mounted turret held the commander-loader on the left and gunner on the right. They each had a rear-opening hatch cover.
Without preparation, the Fox can ford one meter of water, and a flotation screen can be erected in two minutes. Drive when floating was solely from the road wheels, giving poor performance, and the screens were removed from most U.K. vehicles early in their service life. Air-portable, three Foxes can be carried by one C-130 Hercules aircraft, two of which can be parachute-dropped.
The Fox was principally used by the Royal and Queen's Own Yeomanry, the brigade reconnaissance regiments in 2 Div, BAOR's rear-area formation. Small numbers were also attached to air-mobile, armored and mechanized infantry battalions to form a reconnaissance platoon.
